Farewell Great Macedon (TV story)

Therefore, its known narrative elements are not a part of the Doctor Who universe. It may have been the basis for a similar story in another medium, however — and that story may indeed be a part of the DWU.

As was the norm in the early seasons, each individual episode would have carried a separate title, with no overall title given on screen for the serial. According to Farhi's script, the individual episodes would have carried these titles:

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Wrath of the Greatest Grecian of Them All! (Farhi also suggests an alternate title: O, Son! My Son!)

A Man Must Die

The World Lies Dead at Your Feet

In the Arena

Farewell, Great Macedon!

Note: the punctuation present in the episode 6 title is not present in the actual title of the serial.

According to the article "So Near, So Farhi" in the Farewell Great Macedon omnibus, after the script was rejected for Doctor Who in 1964, Farhi submitted them to the BBC as a potential springboard to a series on Alexander the Great. This idea was rejected. In 1966, Farhi resubmitted the scripts to new Doctor Who script editor Donald Tosh, but was once again turned down.

As there is a difference between the published script and the Big Finish Productions adaptation, this is a story, like every novelised Doctor Who or Sarah Jane story, in which the individual fan must decide whether to accept the print or the performed version of the story.

There is also the question of when this adventure occurred within Susan's personal timeline. Some fan chronologists have tried to assert that The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance should be placed after Macedon.[1] However, as Fragrance was written before Macedon — and flatly rejected by Whitaker — neither script references the other in any way, leaving one free to choose any order. Moreover, neither script references any other Doctor Who script, so chronological placement can only logically occur between The Reign of Terror and Planet of Giants, because these are the only two stories featuring Susan which have no narrative connection.

The Big Finish Productions audio adaptation of The Masters of Luxor establishes that The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance takes place before Farewell Great Macedon, as it mentions the events of both, but is explicitly set immediately after Farewell Great Macedon.

In Robot the recently regenerated Fourth Doctor does reference once meeting Alexander the Great, though he gives no details to really confirm the plot details of Macedon.